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/iO 299 
A 1854 

Copy 1 








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AMERICAN YIEW 



OF THE 



m 



EASTERN QUESTION.! 



f 




BY WM. HENRY TRESCOT. 



^:hian ^m^ 




CHAELESTOl^^S 0;' 

JOHN KITSSELL, KING -STREET. 



1854. 



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HUNGARIAN REPE&BNCB UBRAKv 

PrOi>erty of 

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



AN 



AMERICAN YIEW 



OF THE 



EASTERN QUESTION. 



BY WM. HENRY TEESCOT. > ^ V^9 ^ 



^yi^i '/It:, or. 



CHAELESTOlSr, S C. 

JOHN RUSSELL, K I N G-S T K E E T , 



1854. 



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6 

Copy 








1396N 


23JUL 19 


53 




AN AMERICAN VIEW 



1^ 



OF 



THE EASTERN QUESTION. 



When, during one of the late debates in Parlia- 
ment, the Earl of Aberdeen described the condition 
of England, by saying that the nation was not at war, 
bnt was drifting to war, his words might have been 
a23plied, with a wider and truer significance to the 
state of all Europe for the last forty years. And the 
histor}^ of this time, when it comes to be written, 
will shew that never has European diplomacy been 
more wisely or actively employed, than during this 
very period, in postponing the dreaded consumma- 
tion. But it has proved beyond the power of human 
wisdom to control the issues of human passion ; and 
after a peace of half-a-century, partially broken, it 
is true, by revolutionary struggles, a whole continent 
is again in arms. The Danube, whose shores have 
re-echoed the war cry of the Dacian barbarian, and 
the tramp of the Eoman legion ; upon whose turbid 
waters have gleamed the victorious light of Sobfes- 
ki's sword, and the waning glory of the Turkish cres- 
cent, runs again, exulting to the Euxine, red with 
Christian blood ; and the banners of England, France 
1^ 



AN AMERICAN VIEW 



and Russia, shaken from tlieir tropliiecl drapery, again 
'' stream like meteors to tke troubled air," Tlie mili- 
tary salute fired over the last of Napoleon's marshals, 
has scarcely died upon the ear ; the funeral pomp 
that marshaled England's great captain to the field 
of his only defeat, has not yet faded to the eye ; Met- 
ternich and IN'esselrode, the great draftsmen of the 
majD of modern Europe, are still alive, but already 
has their work grown old. The foundations they 
laid have been broken up ; the balance of power 
they adjusted is disturbed, and the world trembles 
in apprehension of a bloodier convulsion and a wil- 
der change than in their day rocked the thrones of 
ancient empires, and inscribed on the ensanguined 
battle roll of history the names of Moscow and Wa- 
terloo. 

Tlie late news from Europe not only proves the 
existence of war, by the report of battles and the 
formal declaration of hostilities, but it justifies the 
gravest apprehensions of a protracted and universal 
war. The mission of Prince George of Mechlen- 
berg, the last efi'ort of the Czar to avoid or postpone 
the crisis, has failed. And this must be considered, 
on the part of the allied powers, as a declaration that 
they are resolved to make a new and wider settle- 
ment of the Eastern question, before they lay down 
their arms. Tliey will not accept the status quo 
ante helium as the basis of an arrangement ; and as 
Russia cannot be expected to admit any other, it 
would seem that upon this contest her whole future 
power and policy are staked. Austria and Prussia 
have at last come to an explicit understanding. But 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 



by signing with France and England the much talked 
of protocol, they have not committed themselves to 
the Western powers, but have simply indicated their 
readiness, in their own time and in their own inter- 
est, to abandon a neutrality which, in the interest 
of others, sooner or later, they would not be permit- 
ted to maintain. The insurrection in Greece, un- 
questionably encouraged by Russia, has become too 
formidable for the control of the Greek Government ; 
has already embroiled Greece with Turkey ; added 
another complication to the embarrassments of the 
Sultan, by forcing him to order all the Greek resi- 
dents — neither few nor feeble for mischief— to leave 
his dominions, and may eventually compel an armed 
demonstration on the part of England and France. 
Sweden is evidently uneasy, and is already taking 
measures which look suspiciously towards the aban- 
donment of her neutrality in the interest of Russia. 
Denmark, bound to Russia by the aid rendered in 
the affair of the Dutchies, has manifested very clearly 
to Sir Charles E'apier her dissatisfaction at the pres- 
ence of the combined fleets in the Baltic. The revo- 
lutionists of Lombardy and Hungary are alert, or- 
ganised and almost" desperate; while among the 
Turks themselves there is a strengthening discontent 
with the Sultan's reforms. '^ Menshikoff," say they, 
" came and asked for the Koran, and said, ^ Strike out 
these texts.' The French and English come, and 
they say, ' Throw this book into the Bosphorus.' " * 

* Since these introductory remarks were written, some modification has 
taken place in the relations of the European powers, between themselves. 
I have, however, left these observations as they stand, because no change 



AN AMEKICAK VIEW 



Lamentable as is this state of things, it is scarcely 
surprising. Events for the last forty years have 
been bringing on this war slowly, bnt surely, and 
nothing but the revolutionary dangers incident to 
general hostilities in Europe, have preserved peace 
so long among the rival nations. And it is therefore 
impossible to a23preciate the present disturbed con- 
dition of Europe, or even to approximate towards a 

in the position of the leading powers of Europe affects the argument at- 
tempted in the following pages, which rests entirely upon the past history 
of England and the diplomatic correspondence already exchanged. If the 
news be true that Austria and Prussia have joined in a treaty with the 
allied powers, one of two results seems to be certain : either, 1, that any 
marked and permanent success over Russia will dissolve a coalition repre- 
senting such divergent interests as belong to the varied policies of Eng- 
gland, France, Austria and Prussia ; or, 2, that the influence of Austria 
■and Prussia will be used to facilitate a settlement which will compromise 
Russia as little as possible. The history of Europe proves that the more 
extensive a coalition, the more brittle is its bond. Prussia has more 
than once before this shewn England what little obligation interest at- 
taches to the most solemn treaties, and England has occasionally profited 
by the lesson. Besides which, the treaty, as reported in the papers, scarcely 
goes beyond the obligations of the protocol, and these obligations are in 
reference solely to the interests of Germany, as they may be endangered 
by the progress of the war. Indeed, some of the English papers have 
already said that this treaty is but the introduction to a renewal of nego- 
tiations on a new basis, and one adds : "While we are calculating upon the 
certainty of all the great powers being compactly allied against Russian 
policy, the Emperor of Russia has probably succeeded in changing the 
issue, and the controversy will be no longer as to the evacuation of the 
Turkish dominions, but on the recurrence to the status quo, or to a re-dis- 
tribution of territory with the four powers divided on the question." 

Besides the unsatisfactory nature of this condition of things, Greece is 
occupied by French troops, England seems likely to follow the same policy 
with Denmark, and the Times is busily employed in fomenting the differ- 
ences between the Swedish Government and the people excited against 
Eussia, in hope of obtaining a restoration of Finland. 



OF THE EASTEKN QUESTION. 



9 



reasonable opinion as to its probable results, without 
going furtliei* back tlian the recent controversy in 
Turkey. 

Tlie Congress of Yienna nndertook no less a task 
than the re-constrnction of Europe ; for the French 
revolution and its consequences interposed a great 
gulf between the Europe of 1815 and that defined in 
the treaties of Westphalia and IJtrecht. The Euro- 
pean system came out of the wars of 1800-1815, 
essentially changed, not merely in its relations, but 
in its very composition. Four new facts had been 
established, which must be assumed as the necessary 
basis of any future political arrangements. They 
were: — 1. The extinction of the old German empire, 
which was, in truth, the centre of the former system. 
2. The astonishing developement of Russia. 3. Tlie 
consolidation of the British power in India, and con- 
sequent gigantic growth of her commercial influence ; 
and 4. The presence, in every State of Europe, of an 
active, organised and radical revolutionary party. 
It would be difficult to find in the proceedings of 
Yiemia any provision against the necessary conse- 
quence of such a condition of affairs. For, 1st, 
Instead of providing some substitute for the old centre 
furnished by the German empire, the Congress of 
Yienna left Germany divided into two factions — 
Austria and Prussia^ — supported by a crowd of small 
States, feeding their interests by a parasitical devo- 
tion to one or the other, and both striving for the 
autocracy of modern Germany. 2. Instead of pla- 
cing some one strong power between Russia and 
Western Europe, Russia was allowed to incorporate 



10 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

enoiigli of Poland to "bring lier in contact with Prus- 
sia, as she ah^eacly w^as with Austria, and thus placed 
in position to play upon the jealousy or weakness of 
either, to set one against the other, or to control 
both. 3rd. Instead of attempting to create some 
balance against the enormous and overgrown com- 
mercial power of England, France was both morally 
and physically diminished, and the commercial in. 
terests of Great Britain strengthened by the creation 
of a new kingdom out of Belgium and Holland, 
where English influence would be dominant. And 
lastly, while organizing a sort of royal police over 
the reforming spirit of Europe, the Congress acWed 
fresh fuel to the smouldering fire of the Italian revo- 
lutionists, by the most arbitrary and offensive viola- 
tion of national feeling. Genoa, the superb, was de- 
graded into the provincial sea-port of a second rate 
sovereignty ; and "Venice, the bride of the sea, sub- 
mitted to the coarse grasp of an Austrian subaltern. 
AVhether the actual solution of the difticult questions 
then calling for settlement, was the only practical 
one, ought to have been better known to the states- 
men of that day, than it can be to students of this. 
But the results are ours, and are certain. The Con- 
gress of Vienna has proved little better than an ar- 
mistice, and from St. Petersburg to Naples, from 
Paris to Constantinople, the last forty years have 
developed an agitated life of change, confusion, and 
revolution. ITot only has much of the work of 1815 
been undone, but it has been destroyed by its own 
creators. To use the strong language of Count Eic- 
quelmont, " Tlie two acts of the Congress of Vienna, 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 11 

calculated to exercise the greatest influence on the 
future of central Europe, were the re-construction of 
Poland, and the creation of a kingdom of the low 
countries. These two new political bodies have been 
destroyed by the same powers who most largely con- 
tributed to their creation. It is Kussia who willed, 
I will not say the restoration, but the re-construction 
of a Poland — it is Russia who has been brought to de- 
stroy her own work. It is England who labored most 
earnestly in the creation of the kingdom of the low 
countries, and took the new State under her special 
protection. It was the illustrious warrior to whose 
genius she owed so many victories, to whom was 
committed the organization of the military system of 
the new State, which England wished to erect into 
her first line of defence against France. This terri- 
tory, circled by citadels, secured the communication 
between the armies of England and Germany. And 
it was England who eagerly seized the first occasion 
to destroy her own handiwork.''^ 

Tlie absence of any real German unity, has given 
play to a rivalry between Austria and Prussia, dan- 
gerous not only to themselves, but to some of the 
gravest European interests — opened a field for the 
exhibition of the miserable folly of the Frankfort 
Parliament, and permitted the dishonest and dis- 
graceful invasion of the rights of Denmark, in the 
Dutchies of Schleswig and Holstein. 

France, Italy and Austria have been weakened 
and distracted by the fiercest civil commotion ; and 
the present condition of Europe, in contrast with the 

* " Lord Palmerston I'Angleterre et le continent," vol. ii., p. 3. 



12 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

provisions of the diplomacy of 1815, points, with pain- 
ful emphasis, the moral of human foresight. One 
fact remains, indeed, unchanged : England and Eus- 
sia were the controlling authorities at Yienna, and 
after half-a-centuiy of change and controversy, they 
now front each other, in armed hostility, the rival 
powers of Europe. But how wide the diiference be- 
tween the courses of their respective policies and 
their resulting positions. With the exception of the 
United States, it may safely be said that Russia is the 
only power in the world with a fixed policy and a 
constant progress. England has strength, but she 
needs it all to hold her own. Her immense com- 
mercial development has given to her foreign policy 
a mercantile rather than a political character, and 
shifting her conduct to suit her interests, she has 
been forced to keep the police of Europe in the 
interest of Manchester and Liverpool. Russia, on 
the contrary, has devoted near two centuries of as- 
tute and systematic diplomacy to one idea — the 
extension of her empire to Constantinople. Twenty 
years have never passed, since her first step towards 
the Bosphorus, that she has not taken another, 
in advance. The fall of markets has not checked 
her progress — ^tlie complications of parliamentary 
strife have not disturbed lier course — she has moved 
steadily on, " unchanged through all — ^unchanging- 
ly." And not forgetting her object, she has yet con- 
trived, not only to do justice, but to do efficient ser- 
vice, in Europe, to the cause of justice. In the case 
of Greece, as far as England was concerned, the Czar 
acted both wiselv and too w^ell. In the contest be- 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 13 

tween Denmark and the Dutcliies, he vindicated, effi- 
ciently and promptly, the treaties of Europe, while 
Lord Palmerston finessed England into a state of 
faithless imbecility. During the struggle in Austria, 
when the future fortunes of all Europe were com- 
promised by a rash revolution, and while the same 
Lord Palmerston w^as contriving a modified policy 
which would have saved the Italian republicans, at 
the expense of the Hungarian, the Czar ended the 
contest by an armed interference, wdiich preserved 
both to the Austrian crown. Of course, it would be 
easy to shew a direct interest, on the part of Russia, 
in every one of these questions ; but w^ho can deny 
the wisdom of a policy which, without weakening its 
own strength, made Russia the natural and necessary 
support of the conservatism of the world? It is true 
that Russia has systematically and successfully en- 
croached on Turkey. Forced, by the character of her 
possessions, to seek an outlet into the w^orld of com- 
merce, confined in the Baltic by States whose rights 
she was bound to respect, and has respected, there 
was but one direction in which she could advance. 
Now, on this subject, if there is any people in the 
world who should avoid the cant of English coininer- 
cial conservatism, w^e are that people. The history 
of the world is the history of encroachment, of inva- 
sion, of wrong, if you so will. " It must be that of- 
fenses come," but for him only who knoweth the 
whole counsel of God, is it to say, " Woe unto him 
by whom the offense cometh." Tliis all history 
teaches : the strong and weak will not lie down to- 



14 AN AMERICAN VIEW 



getlier. You cannot ])ring into contact an earnest, 
living will, and a feeble, effete nature, without the 
absorption of tlie one into the other. Place England 
alongside of India, the United States by Mexico and 
Cuba, Eussia by Turkey, and a half century of diplo- 
macy or war will not, cannot prevent the inevitable 
result. The first princij^le of life is progress. As 
one of our own poets has well said — 

"This, the true sign of ruin to a race — 
It undertakes no march, and day by day 
Drowzes in camp, or with a laggard's pace 
Walks sentry o'er possessions that decay : 
Destined with sensible waste to fleet away ; — 
For the first secret of continued power 
Is the continued conquest." — Simms. 

We propose, therefore, to review rapidly the rela- 
tions of England and Eussia to Turkey, since the 
Congress of Vienna, in order to appreciate the value 
of their present relative j)ositions. Turkey has never 
been considered as forming an element of the Euro- 
pean balance of power. In 1791 Burke said, " He 
had never heard it said before that the Turkish em- 
pire w^as ever considered as any part of the balance 
of power in Europe. Tliey had nothing to do with 
European policy — they considered themselves as 
wholly Asiatic. What had these worse than savages 
to do with the powers of Europe, but to spread war, 
destruction and pestilence among them ? Tlie min- 
istry and policy which should give these people 
any weight in Europe, would deserve all the bans 
and curses of posterity. All that was holy in reli- 
gion, all that was moral and humane demanded an 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 15 

abhorrence of every tiling wliicli tended to extend the 
power of the cruel and wasteful empire. Any Chris- 
tian power was to he preferred to these destructive 
savages." 

It would be interesting to trace the policy of Eu- 
rope towards the Turks, from the time when, to the 
horror of Christendom, Francis the First made an 
ally of Solyman against Charles the Fifth, to the 
present day, when the Koran finds its safest refuge 
under the shadow of St. George's cross, but such a 
sketch would interfere too largely with our present 
purpose. It is sufficient now, that at the Congress 
of Yienna which terminated the long and fierce con- 
test, at the commencement of which Mr. Burke used 
the memorable words which we have just quoted, 
the Sultan was not represented. He had not then 
entered the circle of civilized nations, and according 
to one of the ablest historians of that Congress, '' the 
balance of power in the East was not confided to 
Congress."^ 

At the close of 1815, England was unquestionably 
the dominant power of the world — a great position, 
doubtless, but one which, in the history of empires, 
no nation has retained long, or held more than once. 
Her material resources were almost incalculable ; her 
armies in the highest discipline, and brilliant with 
the trophies of an hundred victories; her navies 
floated upon the subject waters of almost every 
sea. In close alliance with her old companions, 
the States of the Baltic, she controlled the ISTorth- 

*Flassan Cong, de Vienne, vol. ii: 114. 



16 AN AMEEICAN VIEW 

ern Ocean and the shores of Germany ; of the new 
kingdom of the low countries she had made a cause- 
way into the heart of Europe ; while in posses- 
sion of Gibraltar and Corfu and Malta, she threat- 
ened the Italian provinces of Austria, and claimed 
the Mediterranean as a subject lake. Her colonies, 
each a link in the long chain of her commercial de- 
pendencies, girdled the globe and bracing her 
strength, served also as conductors of her influence. 
Such power, Kussia only could resist, because, except 
in the case of a general coalition, slie was defended 
by all Europe, and through Turkey she had the 
means of offensive operations, without the necessity 
of violating the riglits of her nearest neighbors. To 
this conflict Eussia lias resolutely addressed herself. 
Since 1815 there have been three questions directly 
affecting Turkey, in the solution of which, Russia 
and England have been immediate parties. The 
Greek insurrection — the war of 1828, between Rus- 
sia and Turkey, terminated by the treaty of Adriano- 
ple — and the revolt of the Egyptian Pacha, or what 
is known as the Eastern question of 1811. Now, 
this whole series of transactions, (and among them 
w^e should include the colonization of Algiers as an- 
other illustration of the same principles,) indicated 
very clearly the position in which Europe, under the 
lead of England, intended to place the Turkish Em- 
pire. They established first — that Turkey was not 
able to maintain her own integrity' — and secondly, 
that the European powers would modify her bound- 
aries, or sustain her provincial authority as suited 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. IT 

their own interests, not liers. In other words — that 
Tnrkev was only a legal fiction in the name of which, 
certain territory should be held for the joint benefit 
of the great powers : the respective shares of each 
others' influence to be determined by their own di- 
plomatic relations. More than this, the independ- 
ence of Greece, and the treaty of Adrianople, the 
moderation of which must fairly be attributed to 
Russia herself, established distinctly the principle 
and policy of a progressive encroachment upon the 
Turkish Empire. For the freedom of Greece rested 
on the principle of Christian resistance to the op- 
pressive power of Turkey, and its natural and logical 
inference promised the same privilege to Albania, 
Thessalia and the neighboring j)rovinces, whenever 
they could organize a like resistance. Indeed, the 
unwise limitation of the boundaries of the new 
kingdom, and the refusal to annex Candia to Greece, 
where she naturally belongs, is to be attributed sim- 
ply to the timid selfishness of the mediating powers : 
to which of those powers and selfishness was most 
specially to be credited, may be inferred from the 
ofi'er of Candia to England in the late famous secret 
correspondence. While Greece was thus taken from 
Turkey, and, instead of being made strong enough 
for independent life, was placed in a condition of 
miserable dependence on Europe, the treaty of Adri- 
anople regulated anew another portion of the Turk- 
ish territory. For, by its provisions, Moldavia and 
Wallachia were elevated into a quasi independence 
placed under the immediate influence of Kussia, and 
2* 



18 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

diplomatized into a position whence they must either 
degenerate into mere Russian provinces, or develope 
into the proportions of a new and independent 
Christian State. Of conrse, such a sohition of these 
partial questions brought on worse complication. — 
The utter weakness of Turkey, ascertained by Europe, 
was soon made manifest in its own provinces. Me- 
hemed Ali, the Pacha of Egypt, who had rendered 
great services to the Sultan during the Greek insur- 
rection, was rewarded by the further addition to his 
Government, of the island of Candia. Wiser and 
stronger than his master, he too resolved on inde- 
pendence. A series of victories rapidly and bril- 
liantly achieved, alarmed the great powers of 
Europe, and the whole machinery of European di- 
plomacy was brought to bear on the Turkish ques- 
tion. The protracted and irritating conferences of 
the European powers on the Eastern question as it 
was then called, proved only too clearly the utter 
and insincere selfishness of their whole policy so far 
as any interest of Turkey was concerned, and demon- 
strated that though Russia might be as selfish as the 
rest, her policy was guided by an ability, reticence, 
and calm assured strength that could not finally fail 
in its ultimate objects. Let us examine these dis- 
cussions more closely. 

Mehemet Ali, imder the pretence of subduing 
some rebellious Pachas, over-ran Syria, and, backed 
by a victorious army, made his demands upon the 
Sultan. They were refused. He crossed the Syrian 
fi'ontier, defeated the Turkish army, and turned his 
conquering columns towards Constantinople. Terri- 



/ 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 19 

fiecl at the prospect, tlie Sultan Malimovid aj)pealed 
to Enssia for aid. It was promptly rendered, and 
on 20tli February, 1833, the Russian fleet, sailing 
from Sebastopol, anchored at the mouth of the 
Bosphorus. At this crisis the French Ambassador 
arrived, and uneasy at the prospective results of such 
aid, insisted that the Russian fleet should retire. It 
did so ; and France applied directly to Ibrahim, the 
son of Mehemet, and then in command of the 
Egyptian army, for a suspension of arms. It was 
granted, and negotiations followed. They were 
unsuccessful, and the army resumed its hostile 
march. Again Russian aid was invoked. The fleet 
again entered the Bosphorus, and fifteen thousand 
Russian soldiers disembarked at Scutari and took 
position between the Bosphorus and the Egyptian 
army. Alarmed, however, almost as much at the 
probable consequences of Russian help as at the ap- 
proach of his revolted subject, to avoid the one, the 
Sultan came to terms with the other, and granted in 
full the demands of Mehemet Ali. The Egyptian 
army commenced its retreat in one direction, and 
Turkey's dangerous ally withdrew in the other. But 
the services rendered so promptly by Russia's ad- 
vance, and the still greater service by her prompt 
retreat, disposed the Sultan favorably to the diplo- 
matic proposals of Russia ; and the treaty of Unkiar- 
Skelessi was the consequence. By this treaty Russia 
bound herself to defend Turkey against all enemies 
civil or foreign, and Turkey closed the Dardanelles 
to the armed vessels of all other foreign powers. — 
The immense advantage to Russia of such a treaty, 



^0 AN a:merican view 

need not be 23ointed out. Meliemet Ali was not sat- 
isfied. He demanded the hereditary government of 
his provinces ; for he was ambitions of becoming an 
indejDendent prince. War was again imminent. — 
The great j^owers discouraged his ambition, but he 
persevered. The famous battle of Nezib terminated 
in the complete defeat of the Turkish army, the old 
Sultan died, and the Turkish Admiral by an act of 
unparalleled treachery, delivered the whole Ottoman 
fleet into the hands of the rebel Pacha at Alexan- 
dria. The fate of the Turkish Empire seemed rapid- 
ly approaching its crisis. But on the 23d July, 1839, 
a French messenger having again induced the victo- 
rious Ibrahim to pause, the representatives of the 
S.ye great powers, Russia, England, France, Austria, 
and Prussia, addressed the following note to the new 
Sultan Abduel Medjid : "The five ambassadors un- 
dersigned, in conformity with their instructions re- 
ceived yesterday from their respective courts, con- 
gratulate themselves on having to announce to the 
ministers of the Sublime Porte, that the agreement 
between the five powers touching the Eastern ques- 
tion is certain. And they entreat the Sublime Porte, 
in waiting for the fruits of their friendly disposition, 
(leurs dispositions bienveillantes) not to decide abso- 
lutely on the said question in a definite manner 
without their concurrence (leur concours)." Here, 
surely, one would think was a case in which, if the 
interests of Turkey Avere the object, the action of the 
mediators would have been prompt and unanimous. 
What was the fact ? From July, 1838, when the note 
was sent, to July, 1841, when they agreed upon a 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 21 

joint treaty, these great powers consumed their time 
in perpetual disputes and diplomatic intrigue. They 
could not agree on a policy to be executed, nor 
upon a plan of execution. A conference called to 
give peace to the East, came near embroiling all 
Europe in war. France, who most eagerly com- 
menced the pacification, was diplomatized out of all 
participation in the concluding treaty ; and the 
Eastern question was finally settled, more by the 
rough and ready responsibility of Sir Charles ISTapier, 
than by the subtle dexterity of the ambassadors at 
London. 

For when, after the acceptance of their ofier, the 
representatives of the Five Powers met, the Turkish 
Secretary of State exposed the weakness of the Em- 
pire ; declared that they looked to Europe for their 
salvation, and tlianking the Powers for their friendly 
intervention, submitted, as the first of his demands, 
that Syria should be restored to the Sultan ; and very 
naturally. England and Austria sustained the de- 
mand. Russia and France opposed it. Tliey de- 
manded that Egypt and the Syrian Pachaliks should 
be OTven to Mehemet, with an hereditarv title. Prus- 
sia sided with England and France. Tliese confer- 
ences were finally adjourned to London, and the Four 
Powers combined against France. Russia did not 
wish to weaken Turkey too far at that time ; for Eu- 
rope was not ready for the partition. England 
not only did not wish to weaken Turkey as against 
Russia, but she was vehemently opposed to the 
growth of Mehemet All's power in Egypt. France, 
on the contrary, was anxious to make Mehemet Ali 



22 AN AMERIC^VN VIEW 

an independent prince with Egypt and Syria, per- 
haps, because it reduced English influence in the 
Mediterranean, and on the India over-land route. 
Li this, Kussia at first agreed with her, but finding 
it easier to manage the English Cabinet than to 
oppose it, adopted English policy, and used it for her 
own purposes. Austria and Prussia acted on reasons 
it is not worth while to examine. Finding France 
steady in her purpose towards Mehemet Ali, the 
Czar, through Baron Brunow, induced England, b}^ 
some concessions of the advantages obtained under 
the treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi, to exclude France from 
any further deliberation, and with herself, Austria 
and Prussia, to sign a treaty which would terminate 
the question. Tlie treaty was signed. France was 
indignant, but submitted, and after some belligerent 
manifestations, acquiesced. Sir Charles ^N^apier de- 
feated the Egyptians on the shores of Syria, and upon 
the taking of St. Juan d'Acre, Mehemet Ali con- 
sented to the terms of the Sultan, by which he re- 
mained hereditary Pacha of Egypt ; and thus ano- 
ther practical dismemberment of the Turkish Empire 
was effected. Thus, by 1842, in the name of the 
integrity of the Turkish Emj)ire, Greece had been 
created an independent kingdom, Servia and Walla- 
chia in a large degree enfranchised, and Egypt con- 
verted into an hereditary pachalik only nominally 
dependent on the Porte. And all this was done 
with the unanimous consent of the Euro]3ean Pow- 
ers, acting in difierent directions, and in furtherance 
of divergent interests. Whatever of Turkey was 
left, was left only because the Great Powers could 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 23 

not agree how it was to be divided. At this i3eriod 
then, it may be considered that the gradual extinc- 
tion and absorption of Turkey, was a leading idea of 
European diplomacy. We are not discussing, and 
do not intend to discuss, the moral value of such a 
principle. We are simply reviewing the facts of the 
diplomatic history of that day. France had Algiers ; 
English influence was dominant in Syria and Egypt ; 
Greece was a constant protest "against Turkish rule 
over Christian subjects ; and the Slave provinces of 
Turkey were open to and prepared for Russian in- 
terference. Turkey herself was prostrate after more 
than ten years of constant warfare,|^and as constant 
defeat. In this condition of aifairs, with a j)i*iiici- 
ple so obvious, and a policy so tempting, the Czar 
thought it wisest to prepare for the future — to avoid, 
if possible, the disturbance of Europe by any sudden 
and rude collision in the East, of interests which had 
by this time taken almost a traditional character. 
As his late experience had proved that Russia and 
England could control the Eastern question, to Eng- 
land he applied for counsel. And here we reach at 
last the famous memorandum of 1844. In analyzing 
this memorandum, and the correspondence on the 
questions arising in 1852 and '53, we certainly shall 
not follow the order of their publication, but their 
actual chronology. For Part v. of the Parliamen- 
tary documents, is really Part i. of the correspond- 
ence, and the English cabinet and press have derived 
no little advantage in their argument by this tem- 
porary suppression of the earlier papers. 

In 1844, soon after the termination of the Egyp- 



24 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

tian and Syrian difSculties, while the perplexities of 
that question were fresh in the memories of the 
Powers of Europe, the Czar visited England. Du- 
ring that visit, he had full and frank explanations 
with tlie ministry, as to the probable future of 
Turkey, and the proper policy in that regard, of the 
two Powers. The result of these conferences was 
summed up in a memorandum, and this memoran- 
dum, the Earl of Aberdeen stated in his speech of 
March 31, was sanctioned and approved by himself, 
the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. Tlie 
memorandum recites the anxiety of both powers for 
the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, states the diffi- 
culties which are most probable in the internal ad- 
ministration of Turkey, recommends a conciliatory 
but firm course of conduct on the part of the Euro- 
pean powers, which would keep Turkey true to all 
lier engagements, and then proceeds in the following- 
distinct language : 

"However, they must not conceal from themselves 
how many elements of dissolution that Empire con- 
tains within itself. Unforeseen circumstances may 
hasten its fall without its being in the power of the 
friendly cabinets to prevent it. As it is not given 
to human foresight to settle before-hand a plan of 
action for such or such unlooked-for case, it would 
lye premature to discuss eventualities which may 
never be realized. 

" In the uncertainty which hangs over the future, 
a single fundamental idea seems to admit of a really 
practical application; it is that the danger which 
may result from a catastrophe in Turkey will be 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 25 

mucli diminisliecl, if in tlie event of its occurring, 
Russia and England have come to an understanding 
as to the course to be taken by them in common. — 
Tliat understanding will be the more beneficial, 
inasmuch as it will have the full assent of Austria. 
Between her and Russia there exists already an 
entire conformity of principles in regard to the af- 
fairs of Turkey, in a common interest of conserva- 
tism and of peace. 

" In order to render their union more efficacious, 
there would remain nothing to be desired, but that 
England should be seen to associate herself thereto 
with the same view. The reason which recommends 
the establishment of this agreement is very simple. 

"On land Russia exercises in regard to Turkey, a 
preponderant action. 

" On sea England occupies the same position. Iso- 
lated, the action of these two powers might do much 
mischief. United, it can produce a real benefit: 
and hence the advantage of coming to a previous 
understanding, before having recourse to action. 
This motion was in principle agreed upon during 
the Emperor's last residence in London. Tlie result 
was the eventual engagement, that if anything un- 
foreseen occurred in Turkey, Russia and England 
should previously concert together as to the course 
which they should pursue in common. Tlie object 
for which Russia and England will have to come to 
an understanding, may be expressed in the following 
manner : 

"1. To seek to maintain the existence of the Otto- 
3 



26 AN AMEKICAN VIEW 

man Empire in its present state, so long as that polit- 
ical combination shall be possible. 

" 2. If we foresee that it must crumble to pieces, to 
enter into previous concert as to every thing relating 
to the establishment of a new order of things, in- 
tended to replace that which now exists ; and in con- 
junction with each other, to see that the change 
which may have occurred in the internal situation of 
)'y the Empire, shall not injuriously affect either the 
security of their own States, and the rights which 
the treaties assure to them respectively, or the main- 
tenance of the balance of power in Europe. 

" For the purpose thus stated, the policy of Russia 
and of Austria as we have already said, is closely 
united by the principle of perfect identity. If 
England, as the principal maritime power, acts in 
concert with them, it is to be supposed that France 
will find herself obliged to act in conformity with 
the course agreed upon between St. Petersburg!!, 
London and Yienna. 

" Conflict between the great powers being thus ob- 
viated, it is to be hoped that the peace of Europe 
will be maintained even in the midst of such serious 
circumstances. It is to secure this object of common 
interest if the case occurs; that as the Emperor 
agreed with her Brittanic Majesty's ministers during 
his residence in England, the previous understanding 
which Russia and England shall establish between 
themselves, must be directed." Blue Book, Part vi., 
p.p. 3. 4: 

We honestly think, that in view of the past, the Earl 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 27 

of Aberdeen was warranted in saying : that supposing 
tlie Emperor right in his apprehension of the dissohi- 
tion of Turkey, he saw "but that which is wise and 
moderate, and judicious in the memorandum." And 
when, in 1852, the difficulties arose concerning the 
Holy Places, the Czar, in perfect faith with this agree- 
ment, directly approached the British Government, 
and-aiiited the joint consultation thus provided for ten i^^w/ 
years before. And it must be recollected, at the 
outset of this examination, that Russia did not pro- 
voke this crisis. For Lord John Russell on 28th 
January, 1853, and after he had received the first 
secret dispatch from Sir Hamilton Seymour, detailing 
the commencement of the Emperor's confidential 
conversations, which reached him on the 23d of the 
same month, says to Lord Cowley, the British min- 
ister in Paris — "In the first place. Her Majesty's 
desire is, to abstain altogether from giving any 
opinion on the merits of the question. Treaties, 
Conventions and Firmans, are quoted with equal 
confidence on both sides. But Her Majesty's Gov- 
ernment cannot avoid perceiving that the Ambassa- 
dor of France at Constantinople was the first to 
disturb the status quo in which the matter rested. — 
Not that the disputes of the Latin and Greek Church- 
es were not very active, but that without some po- 
litical action on the part of France, those quarrels 
would never have troubled the relations of the 
friendly powers. 

" In the next place, if report is to be believed, the 
French ambassador was the first to speak of having 
recourse to force and to tlireaten the intervention of 



28 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

a French fleet, to enforce the demands of his coun- 
try." Bhie Books, Part i., p. 67. 

It is imjDossible of course to enter at large into the 
technical perplexities of such questions, as to whether 
the key of the Church at Bethlehem should be en- 
trusted to the Latin Bishop, or to the Greek Patri- 
arch. But this much is clear to all, that as Turkey 
holds her place in the political world, only by the 
mutual sufferance of the European powers, the prac- 
tical question with them is, as to balance of their 
respective influence with the Sublime Porte ; and as 
the influences of Russia and France are represented 
through the privileges of the Greeks and Latins, of 
whom they are the representatives, questions of ap- 
parent insignificance assume importance, as indi- 
cating the real power of these several courts. jN^ow, 
it appears that in 1852, the French Government was 
not satisfied with the status quo of these two parties, 
and made certain demands in favor of the Latins 
upon the Porte. Russia considered these demands 
as inadmissible. The Porte fearful of oflending 
either, hesitated and prevaricated with both. France 
and Russia both grew angry. France threatened 
force, and Russia prepared to use it. Tlie Czar be- 
lieving that he saw danger of a rupture, the conse- 
quences of which might extend further than the 
abstract value of the questions indicated, thought 
that the case provided for in the memorandum, 
had occurred, and through Sir Hamilton Seymour 
opened the consultation to which England and him- 
self were pledged. Tlie first secret dispatch of Sir 
Hamilton Seymour is dated 11th January, 1853, and 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 29 



the question of the Holy Places assumed its very- 
grave character towards the close of 1852, at which 
time Kussia had evidently begun to make prepara- 
tions for hostilities. Upon the appreciation of these 
confidential disclosures will depend the character of 
Rusia's conduct ; for her intentions, as manifested in 
them, will give color to her after proceedings. They 
require, therefore, a careful analysis. These conver- 
sations was of course oj^ened by the Czar, and on his 
part were directed to three points. First — ^the ex- 
pression of his strong desire, that in any future 
policy towards Turkey, himself and the English 
Government should be in perfect accord. Second — 
the declaration of his belief that the condition of the 
Turkish Empire was such, that at any moment, a 
revolution of the Christians, or a complicated dispute 
between any of the leading powers of Europe on a 
Turkish question, would lead to sudden collapse of 
the Ottoman Empire. And third — an invitation to the 
English Government to discuss fully and frankly the 
consequences of such an occurrence, in order to 
come to some general principles which should regu- 
late their action. And referring to one point of 
special importance, he said: '^ Frankly then, I tell 
you plainly, that if England thinks of establishing 
herself one of these days at Constantinople, I will 
not allow it. I do not attribute this intention to you, 
but it is better on these occasions to speak plainly : 
for my part I am equally disposed to take the en- 
gagement, not to establish myself there, as proprie- 
tor, that is to say ; for as occiq^ier, I do not say : it 
tnight happen that circumstances^ if no previous 
3* 



30 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

provision were made, if every thing should he left 
to chance^ might place me in the jmsitioji of occupy- 
ing Constanti7iople.^^^ 

Sir Hamilton Seymour sums up the value of these 
conversations fairly, when he says : 

" With regard to the extremely important over- 
ture to which this report relates, I will only observe, 
that as it is my duty to record impressions, as well as 
facts and statements; I am bound to say, that if 
words, tone and manner oifer any criterion, by 
which, intentions are to be judged, the Emperor is 
prepared to act with perfect fairness and openess to- 
wards Her Maj esty 's Government. His Maj esty has, 
no doubt, his own objects in view; and he is, in my 
opinion, too strong a believer in the imminence of 
dangers in Turkey. I am, however, impressed with 
the belief, that in carrying out those objects, and in 
guarding against those dangers. His Majesty is sin- 
cerely desirous of acting in harmony with Her Ma- 
jesty's Government. I would now submit to your 
lordship, that this overture cannot with })ropriety 
pass unnoticed by Her Majesty's Government. It 
has been on a first occasion glanced at, and on a 
second distinctly, made by the Emperor himself to 
the Queen's minister at his court, whilst the conver- 
sation held some years ago with the Duke of "Wel- 
lington, proves that the object in view, is one which 
has long occupied the thoughts of his ImjDerial Ma- 
jesty. If then, the proposal were to remain unan- 
swered, a decided advantage would be secured to the 
Imperial Cabinet, which, in the event of some great 

*Blue Books, Part vi., p. 4. 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 31 

catastroi)lie taking place in Turkey, would be able 
to point to proposals made to England, and wliicli 
not liaving been responded to, left the Empero?^ at 
liberty J or placed him under the necessity of folloiv- 
ing his own line of policy in the East. 

" Again I would remark, that the anxiety expressed 
by tlie Emperor, even looking to liis own interests 
for an extension of the days 'of the dying man,' ap- 
pears to me to jnstify Her Majesty's Government in 
proposing to His Imperial Majesty, to imite with 
England in the adoption of such measures as may 
lead to prop up the failing authority of the Sultan. 
Lastly, I would observe that even if the Emperor 
should be found disinclined to lend himself to such 
a course of policy as might arrest the downfall of 
Turkey, his declarations to me pledge him to be 
ready to take before-hand, in concert with Her Ma- 
jesty's Government, such precautions as may possibly 
prevent the fatal crisis being followed by a scramble, 
for the rich inheritance which would remain to be 
disposed of 

" A noble triumph would be obtained by the civili- 
zation of the nineteenth century, if the void left by 
the extinction of Mahommedan rule in Europe could 
be filled up, without an interruption of the general 
peace, in consequence of the precautions adopted by 
the two principal Governments, the most interested 
in the destinies of Turkey."''^ 

To this dispatch. Lord John Kussel replied on the 
9th February, 1853. He was " happy to acknow- 
ledge the moderation, the frankness, and the friend- 

*Blue Books, Part vi., p. 5, 6. 



AN AMERICAN VIEW 



ly disposition of His Imperial Majesty ;" and repeats 
distinctly and fairly the point of the Imperial com- 
munication. "The question raised by His Imperial 
Majesty is a very serious one. It is supposing the 
contingency of the dissolution of the Turkish Empire 
to be probable, or even imminent ; whether it is not 
better to be provided before-hand for a contingency, 
than to in<3ur the chaos, confusion, and the certainty 
of an European war ; all of which must attend the 
catastrophe, if it should occur unexpectedly and 
before some ulterior system has been sketched :" And 
this "ulterior system" he declines to join in sketch- 
ing, for the reasons he gives, viz: 1. Because "no 
actual crisis has occurred, which renders necessary 
a solution of this vast European problem." 2. The 
impossibility of making any arrangement without 
the participation of the other leading European pow- 
ers. 3. Because any such arrangement would only 
hasten the catastrophe it was intended to avoid. And 
he concludes by stating "that no course of policy 
can be adopted more wise, more disinterested, more 
beneficial to Euro|)e, than that which His Imperial 
Majesty has so long followed, and which will render 
his name more illustrious than that of the most 
famous Sovereigns, Avho have sought immortality by 
unprovoked conquest and ephemeral glory." After 
this dispatch, the conversations were still conducted 
through Sir Hamilton Seymour, and the Czar opened 
himself more fully. " I wdll not" said he "tolerate 
the permanent occupation of Constantinople by the 
Kussians : having said this, I will say, that it never 
shall be held by the English or French, or any other 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 33 

great nation. Again — I never will permit an at- 
tempt at the re-construction of a Byrantine Empire, 
or sncli an extension of Greece as would render her 
a powerful State — still less would I permit the 
breaking up of Turkey Into little republics ; asylums 
for the Kossuths and Mazzinis, and other revolution- 
ists of Europe ; rather than submit to any of these 
arrangements, I would go to war, and as long as I 
have a man and a musket left would carry it on." 
"^ * "^ "^ " The Emperor went on to 

say, that in the event of the dissolution of the Otto- 
man Emj^ire, he thought it might be less difficult to 
arrive at a satisfactory territorial arrangement than 
Avas commonly believed. The Principalities are, he 
said, in fact an independent State under my protec- 
tion — this might so continue. Servia might receive 
the same form of Government. So again with Bul- 
garia — there seems to be no reason why this province 
should not form an independent State. As to 
Egypt — I quite imderstand the importance to Eng- 
land, of that territory. I can then only say, that if 
in the event of a distribution of the Ottoman succes- 
sion upon the fall of the Empire, you should take 
possession of Egypt, I shall have no objections to 
offer. I would say the same thing of Candia — that 
Island might suit you ; and I do not know why it 
should not become an English possession. As I did 
not wish that the Emperor should imagine that an 
English public servant was caught by this sort of 
overture, I simply answered that I had always un- 
derstood that the English views upon Egypt, did not 
go beyond the j)oint of securing a safe and ready 



34: AJST a:merican view 

communication between British India and the mother 
country." Li fact, the summing of this whole very 
remarkable series of conversations, may be accurate- 
ly stated on the part of Eussia, in the language of 
the memorandum furnished ^ir Hamilton Seymour 
by Count E"esselrode, February 12, 1853 ; and, on 
the part of England, in the language of the dispatch 
of Lord Clarendon to the same ambassador, on 
March 23, 1853. 

The memorandum concludes : "In short, the Em- 
peror cannot but congratulate himself at having 
given occasion for this intimate interchange of confi- 
dential communications between Her Majesty and 
himself. He has found therein value assurances, of 
which he takes note with lively satisfaction. Tlie 
two Sovereigns have frankly explained to each other 
what, in the extreme case of which, they have been 
treating of their respective interests cannot endure. 
England understands that Russia camiot suffer the 
establishment at Constantinople of a Christian power 
sufficiently strong to control and disquiet her. She 
declares that for herself, she renounces any intention 
or desire to possess Constantinople. Tlie Emperor 
equally disclaims any wish or design of establishing 
himself there. England promises that she will enter 
into no arrangements for determining the measures 
to be taken, in the event of the fall of the Turkish 
Empire, without a previous understanding with the 
Emperor. The Emperor on his side willingly con- 
tracts the same engagement ; as he is aware, that in 
such a case, he can equally reckon upon Austria who 
is bound by her promises to concert with him, he 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 35 



regards with less apprehension the catastroj)he which 
he still desires to prevent and avert, as much as it 
shall depend on him to do so." 

Lord Clarendon's dispatch says : " Her Majesty's 
Government have accordingly learnt, with sincere 
satisfaction, that the Emperor considers himself even 
more interested than England, in preventing a Turk- 
ish catastrophe : because they are persuaded, that 
His Imperial Majesty towards Turkey will mainly 
depend the hastening or indefinite postponement, of 
an event which every power in Europe is concerned 
in averting. Her Majesty's Government are con- 
vinced that nothing is more calculated to precipitate 
that event, than the constant prediction of its being 
near at hand ; that nothing can be more fatal to the 
vitality of Turkey, than the assumption of its rapid 
and inevitable decay ; and that if the opinion of the 
Emperor, that the days of the'Turkish Empire were 
numbered became notorious, its downfall must occur 
even sooner than His Imperial Majesty appears now 
to expect. 

"But on the supposition, that from unavoidable 
causes the catastrophe did take place. Her Majesty's 
Government entirely share the opinion of the Em- 
peror; that the occupation of Constantinople by 
either of the great powers, would be incompatible 
w^ith the present balance of power and the mainte- 
nance of peace in Europe, and must at once be re- 
garded as impossible ; that there are no elements for 
the re-construction of a Byrantine Empire, that the 
systematic misgovernment of Greece offers no en- 
couragement to extend its territorial dominion ; and 



36 AN A^IERICAN VIEW 

that as there are no materials for provincial or com- 
munal government, anarchy would be the result of 
leaving the provinces of Turkey to themselves, or 
permitting them to form separate republic." The 
dispatch considers "that the simple pre-determina- 
tion of what shall not be tolerated, does little towards 
solving the real difficulties, or settling in what man- 
ner it would be practicable, or even desirable to deal 
with, the heterogeneous materials of which the Turk- 
ish Empire is composed ;" and his Lordship declares 
that " England desires no territorial aggrandisement, 
and could be no party to a previous arrangement 
from which she was to derive any such benefit. — 
England could be no party to any understanding how- 
ever general, that was to be kept secret from other 
powers." At the close then of these conversations, 
that is, about the time of Prince MenschikoflPs mis- 
sion, the history of Europe since 1815, and the di- 
plomatic papers exchanged between Russia and 
England, had established three facts. 1. Tliat since 
the Congress of Vienna, a steady and gradual dis- 
memberment of the Turkish Empire had been effect- 
ed by the joint action of the great powers. 2. That 
Russia and England distinctly recognizes as one of 
the probable eventualities of European politics the 
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, and pledged 
themselves to a joint consultation, with a view to 
joint action in such an emergency. 3. Tliat the 
English Ministry (see the dispatch of Lord John 
Russell already quoted) acknowledged the existence 
of a critical and complicated state of affairs in 
Tiirkey, threatening the mutual relations of the 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 37 

great j^owers, and brought on by the rash action of 
the French Government. And it must also be 
borne in mind that Lord Clarendon had expressly 
stated, that " if the opinion of the Emperor, that the 
days of the Turkish Empire were numbered, became 
notorious, its downfall must occur even sooner than 
His Imperial Maj esty appears now to expect." E'ow, 
this opinion the Czar did hold and did express ; so 
that, according to the principles laid down by the 
British Government itself, the contemplated crisis 
was at hand. Tlie justice of Russia's position at this 
moment depends upon two questions. 1. Whether 
Russia had in good faith carried out the agreement 
contained in the memorandum of 1844, by which 
she bound herself to consult with England in case 
of certain eventualities. 2. And whetlier the prin- 
ciples upon which she proposed an agreement were 
fair and honest, Tlie first question has already been 
answered in the dispatch of Sir Hamilton Seymour 
first quoted, from the highest authority, and in the 
most unequivocal manner. To the second then, let 
us address ourselves. It has been urged that the 
dishonesty of these overtures is evident from the de- 
liberate exclusion of the other great powers. Eng- 
land herself furnishes a complete reply to this 
charge, both in words and deeds. For in 1841, in 
arrangi^jg the Eastern question of that day, she acted 
heartily with Russia, not in excluding France from 
informal deliberations, but in fraudulently shutting 
France out from participation in a treaty, to the pre- 
liminary steps of which France had been a constant 
and deeply interested party ; and this she did under 



k 



38 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

the influence of Russian diplomacy, and very nearly 
at the expense of the peace of Europe. And in the 
memorandum of 1844, approved, it must be remem- 
bered, by "Wellington, Peel and Aberdeen, she entered 
into a distinct agreement with Russia, on the ground 
that Russia and herself were all-powerful in the 
East, to discuss their future policy together, and has 
put upon that record the emphatic declaration — "If 
England, as the principal maritime power, acts in 
concert with them (i. e., Russia and Austria,) it is 
to be supposed that France will find herself obliged 
to act in conformity with the course agreed upon be- 
tween St. Petersburg, London and Yienna." We 
need scarcely say, that at that time Yienna and St. 
Petersburg!! were so identical, that the former might 
have been stricken out of the sentence without weak- 
ening its force — and that Prussia was not even re- 
ferred to by either of the contracting parties. If 
France, then, was excluded from the discussion, the 
memorandum of 1844 had worked the exclusion. 

It is next declared that the proposals of the Czar 
amount to an iniquitous proposition to partition the 
territory of an independent and allied power in a 
time of profound peace, and w^ithout suJfficient pro- 
vocation. Now we might well remark, that this 
moral sensibility would have exerted a better influ- 
ence if a little sooner manifested ; and that after the 
independence of Greece, Egypt, and the provinces, 
its sudden exhibition may be the miraculous cure 
of a moral paralysis that seemed almost hopeless with 
the great powers ; but it may also be the hypocritical 
indignation of a very selfish virtue. But the truth 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 39 

is, Turkey is not an independent poAver, and is only 
so far an allied one, that the great powers in their 
own interest have combined to preserve it, nntil they 
can agree npon the distribution of its territory. The 
Turks have no part in Europe ; they share neither its 
civilization, its interests, nor its policy ; and if we are 
to look for the criminal selfishness of European poli- 
tics, it will be found in the miserable cant of "the 
integrity of the Ottoman Empire." The great pow- 
ers of Europe have stood like an armed police on 
the borders of this country, to prevent the natural 
and necessary development of its Christian popula- 
tion ; and they have combined in fear, not of Turkey, 
but of an independent Christian power which should 
re-assume the Byzantine diadem. Eussia and Eng- 
land both agree in this wish, hoAvever this material 
diiference. Russia is willing to create a set of inde- 
pendent provinces under her protectorate. England 
prefers the preservation of Turkish rule over the 
same provinces. Tlie history of Europe and the di- 
plomatic language of each of the great powxrs, prove 
that the final extinction of Turkish rule is considered 
one of the established facts of European policy ; and 
even now, while France and England take arms to 
defend the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, they 
call for concessions which amomit almost to a 
national conversion, which must end in revolution, 
and either leave Turks, Greeks, Armenians and 
Latins, to tear each other to pieces, with all the fervor 
of religious zeal, and the intensity of civil hatred, or 
call the allied powers in to measure out the territory, 
and re-adjust the authority of an Empire without 



40 AN AIMEKIC^VN VIEW 

subjects, and a j^eople witliout a country : for we are 
told, on liigli authority, that even now the highest am- 
bition of a Christian rajah, is to become the subject of 
a foreign power. To talk about Turkey as an inde- 
pendent power, having a recognized place in the Eu- 
ropean system like Austria or Prussia, or even like 
Belgium or Switzerland, is to use language contra- 
dicted by every fact of European history, and every 
sentence in the Eastern dispatches of European diplo- 
macy. Tlie extinction of Turkey as the land of Otto- 
man rule, is simply a matter of time. Eussia and 
England, France, Austria and Prussia, have long since 
resolved upon its consummation. And England, 
even that England, who, in the language of Lord 
Clarendon, "desires no territorial aggrandizement, 
and could be no party to a previous arrangement 
from which she was to derive any such benefit," will 
not come out of this war victorious, as she has never 
come out of any other, without " dividing the prey." 
And we honestly believe that both she and they are 
right ; that no principle of justice, no interest of civ- 
ilization calls for the preservation of Turkey. The 
Turks came with the sword, let them go by the 
sword ; wherever they spread, cruelty camped under 
their tents, and desolation was the shadow of their 
bamiers. In the annals of their barren and bloody 
history, we can find nothing that they have j)i*e- 
served — nothing that they have achieved. Ferocious 
in their strength, and false in their weakness, tyran- 
ny and treachery make the antithesis of their chron- 
icles. Like the repulsive creations of their own fic- 
tion, the vampire and the ghoul, they have sucked 



OF TIIE EASTERN QUESTION. 41 

the substance of the fairest portions of the world to 
prolong a monstrous and abhorred life, and feasted 
among the tombs of ancient and renowned nations. 
And when they shall have been expelled from the 
soil they desolate, and from among the people they 
oppress, history will only have recorded another ex- 
ample of God's retributive justice. It is, however, 
when that destruction shall be accomplished, that the 
true policy of Europe will show itself, and the world 
will learn whether the great powers would govern in 
a spirit of wise and honest statesmanship, or short- 
sighted and greedy selfishness. Tlie dissolution of 
the Turkish Empire, therefore, is not the crime of 
Eussia ; but the use which she proposes to make of 
that event, must determine the moral character of 
her policy. What, then, is the nature of her propo- 
sals ? And it must not be forgotten that conversa- 
tions contain no distinct propositions ; they include 
and were intended to convey only an exchange of 
opinions as the basis of future agreement. Were 
they just towards the various people who have hith- 
erto lived subject to Turkish rule, and were they in 
harmony with that principle of European policy, 
which forbids the sudden and disproportionate 
growth of any one of its leading powders ? Tlie idea 
suggested by Russia in these conversations was, that 
in case of the dissolution of the Turkish Empire, as 
neither England nor herself could hold Constantino- 
ple, the Christian population of Turkey with the 
Slave provinces should be formed into independent 
governments under a Russian protectorate, wliile 
Egypt and Candia should become English provinces. 



42 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

As far as the Christian population of Turkey is con- 
cerned, such an arrangement would be a great gain. 
They would at once be delivered from the degrading 
tyranny of Turkish rule ; and although still governed 
to a great degree by a foreign will, they would be 
govered in sympathy with their faith and habits, 
and in view of their own interest. For it is clear, 
that the interest of Eussia w^ould be to develope the 
commercial and agricultural resources of these coun- 
tries to their fullest extent ; and the use which Russia 
has already in her history made of her gigantic 
power in promoting art, commerce and industry, is 
a sufficient guarantee of the future. It is admitted 
on all sides, that the elements of a new Byzantine 
Empire do not at present exist. What better, then, 
could happen to the Slave provinces of Turkey, than 
the quasi independence of a Russian protectorate ? 
Under such protection they would either become 
gradually integral parts of the Russian Empire, or 
they would form by consolidation among themselves 
a new kingdom, with its capital at Constantinople. 
Which of these results would occur would depend 
upon the interests of the Slave population them- 
selves. In the meantime, Russia is specially adapted 
for their guardianship. It would be Russian inter- 
est to develope their resources, and to perfect their 
military strength and commercial capabilities. Tliey 
would preserve under Russian rule more of their 
native habits and peculiar institutions, than under 
any other power ; for Russia is, in fact, a vast con- 
federacy of differing nationalities. It has been very 
justly and very well said, that ''Ruling over eighty 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 43 

different nations or tribes, the autocrat of all tlie 
Kiissias claims tlie allegiance of people of every va- 
riety of race, tongue and religion. Were it possible 
to transport to one common centre of liis Empire the 
gay oj)era lounger of St. Petersburgh, habited in the 
Parisian mode ; the fierce Bashkir of the Ural moun- 
tains, clad in rude armor, and armed with bow and 
arrows ; the Armenian, with his camel from the 
Southern steppes ; and the Esquimaux, who traverses 
with his dogs the frozen regions of the JSTorth ; these 
fellow subjects of one potentate would encounter 
each other with all the surprise and ignorance of in- 
dividuals meeting from England, China, Peru, and 
'New Holland ; nor would the time or expense in- 
curred in the journey be greater in the latter than 
in the former interview." JSTow Russia, on this vast 
and varied field of labor, with what was originally a 
barbarous aristocracy, and a brutal serfage, has 
achieved miracles ; she has built splendid cities, 
created a wide and rich commerce, nourished great 
statesmen, and given birth to renowned warriors; 
she has improved the manners, increased the com- 
forts, and as far as possible ameliorated the condition 
of her people ; and in doing all this, while she has of 
necessity centralized to an almost incredible degree 
the power by which she acts, she has not destroyed 
these j)eculiar habits, nor obliterated the native na- 
tionality of any one of her component people. 

The Slave provinces of Turkey, are not, it is ad- 
mitted, ready for independence — they cannot yet 
consolidate into one free, firm government. What 



44 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

better condition, then, conlcl be found than a quasi 
independence under the protection of Turkey, which 
woukl enable them in the pursuit of their own inter- 
ests to develope either into Eussian provinces, or into 
the centre of a new European State as the wants of 
the future may require? We cannot reahze, w^e 
must confess, the existence of one Empire with two 
capitals, like St. Petersburgh and Constantinople, 
and would consider even the unmodified absorption 
of Turkey into Russia but as one stage in that constant 
process of growth and dissolution, which has marked 
the history of all the great Empires of the world. But 
wdiether Russia is destined to absorb Turkey, and to 
become the vast Empire that terrifies European di- 
plomacy, or whether she is destined to divide into 
two great kingdoms in the East of Europe, we can- 
not feel a doubt that, as far as the interests of the 
Christian population of Turkey is concerned, the 
change from the rule of the Sultan to the dominion 
of the Czar, is to them a change for a better, freer 
and higher political life. It must be noticed also, 
that wdiile the Czar claims the gradual incorporation 
of those populations between whom and himself 
there exists the sympathy of race and faith, he is 
willing to relinquish the sovereignty of Egypt to 
England. He recognizes the truth of that principle, 
by which England has conquered India — the domi- 
nation of the Anglo-Saxon race in its contact with 
the inferior nature of the Asiatic people. 

Wherever the English settler lands, he conquers — 
he never incorporates, he subjects. E'ow the Turkish 



OF TIIE EASTERN QUESTON. 4:5 

possessions cover two classes. 1. The Cliristian popu- 
lation of Turkey in Enrope, avIio have in themselves 
the elements of life, activity, and prosperity : These, 
the Czar says, mnst be incorporated into an Empire mi~ 
derstanding, and sharing their sympathies. 2. The 
Mahometan populations of Asia and Egypt : These 
have no vitality drawn from the past, no progress to 
be hoped for the future: they must be the subjects of 
Christian civilization ; and he accordingly delivers 
them to the great Colonial nation of the world, 
whose commerce will renew, whose colonial genius 
will govern, and whose maritime power will protect, 
the trade, life and territory, of these conquered coun- 
tries, until they shall have been re-created by Eng- 
lish capital and enterprise for a newer and more vig- 
orous life. If, then, this scheme was just, as concerned 
the Christian provinces of Turkey, was it a fair pro- 
position, in reference to the balance of power? — 
Taking for granted the principles of this very inde- 
finite system called the balance of power, we might 
fairly object to the theory of that system which con- 
founds the balance of European power with the 
balance of the world. England herself, by the vast 
extension of her colonial Empire, an expansion which, 
taken together with her maritime force, is equivalent 
to the territorial increase of any other nation of the 
w^orld, has disturbed the old balance, and by extend- 
ing herself in all parts of the globe, has brought all 
parts of the globe into the relations of this system. 
Having done so, she must adjust the balance on a 
new and larger scale. But we do not intend now to 
dwell on that point of view. We assume the Euro- 



46 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

pean stand-point, and wonld remark, first, that the 
balance of power is a defensive system ; not to pre- 
vent change, "but to forbid oppression. Tlie gradual, 
natural growth of any one nation, is not in violation 
of its principles, be the degree of power to which it 
attains ever so exaggerated, as is proved by the his- 
tory of England herself. England came out of the 
wars of 1815 with immensely increased strength ; 
both military and moral. She naturally, necessarily, 
without fraud or force, developed her commercial 
capabilities, and her colonial Empire, until she has 
become the greatest nation that history has recorded. 
This progress was owing, not only to her wealth, in- 
tellect, and enterprise, but to the exemption from the 
desolation of war, wdthin her own borders, which had 
ravaged the continent from Moscow to Madrid, con- 
suming its wealth, palsying its energy, and shutting 
out all field for the exertions of iDeaceful and in- 
dustrial genius. With such a start, England has 
distanced Europe, and her power has grown with her 
prosperity, and on account of her prosperity. But 
a half-century of peace has been rapidly improved 
by all the relations of Europe ; and at their head 
stands Russia, who has developed her energies with 
gigantic efibrts. Tlie natural result is, that as Europe 
approximates to the prosperity of England, the 
power of Europe and England becomes more equally 
balanced, and the very same principles which, in 
their successful working from 1815 on, have made 
England the great power of the world, are in their 
extension bringing other powers more nearly to an 
equality. ISTow any change thus effected, is a legiti- 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 47 

mate and natural variation of the balance to be cor- 
rected, or confirmed by the progress of time ; and 
any change in the relative power of England spring- 
ing from the gradual increase of any other national 
prosperity, is just and proper. And it seems to us, 
that it cannot be denied that some such process has 
been at work in Euroj)e, and that English influence, 
which has been dominant for the last half-century, is 
about to be naturally and necessarily modified. Tlie 
increase, then, of Eussian influence, is not of itself a 
proof that the balance of power has been irregular- 
ly disturbed. The question should be — does the 
action of Russia threaten to subordinate the power 
of England, so as to neutralize or to destroy a neces- 
sary element in that balance? not whether the power 
of England is diminished — for the balance itself may 
call for such diminution — Ijut whether any power is 
to be strengthened into an autocracy ? Now the 
Russian scheme, if it increased the power of Russia, 
did not certainly diminish the power of England. — 
For even if it be granted that Russia would possess 
Constantinople, its natural power as the mistress of 
such a situation would be materially modified, by the 
neighborhood of England's great maritime power at 
Alexandria. And if Candia be added to Malta, 
Corfu and Gibralter, she would indeed be ruler of the 
Mediterranean. As far, therefore, as the relative 
proportion of Russian and English j)ower would af- 
fect the general balance, it must be admitted that 
the proposed scheme preserved the old proportions 
in its development. We think, then, that at the 
close of the conversations between the Czar and the 



48 A^ AMERICAN VIEW 

British ambassador, Russia liad fulfilled all lier obli- 
gations to England, frankly and faitlifully. A case 
bad arisen which, in the oj)inion of the Russian Em- 
peror, met the provisions of the memorandum of 
1844. The crisis had, according to Lord John Rus- 
sell, been unprovoked by Russia, and forced on 
France — it had assumed a very grave character. The 
Emperor called upon England for consultation and 
advice. He stated his opinions frankly, and without 
asking for any action which should initiate the de- 
struction of the Ottoman Empire ; he simply suggest- 
ed the basis of a future understanding ; and the lead- 
ing ideas of his scheme, as w^e have shown, combined 
justice to the constituent elements of the Turkish 
Empire, with due regard to the preservation of Eu- 
ropean balance. England declined the responsibility 
of concerted action, and thus afforded the Czar the 
advantage pointed out by the British minister ; and 
in his own words, which will form the verdict of his- 
tory, " left the Emiyeror at liberty^ or placed him 
under the necessity of follounng his oion line of 
policy in the EastP 

And we insist the more strenuously upon this view, 
"because from this stand-point only can we perceive 
the full character and consequence of Prince Men- 
schikoff's mission. For upon this Turkish question 
Russia was forced to act either in concert with Eng- 
land, or alone. Tlie concert whicli she sought was 
refused, and her own independent action v/as the 
only course left open. What influence, then, had 
Europe a right to exercise upon the relations of 
Turkey and Russia ? and what restraint had Europe 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 49 

a right to put upon Russian policy ? And here again 
we must repeat, that the whole policy of Europe in 
the East, has been based upon two principles. 1. 
The final extinction of the Ottoman Empire — and 2, 
the presence of a certain degree of Russian influence 
over the Slave provinces of Turkey, as one of the 
elements to govern the future distribution of Turkish 
territory. Tlie conversations and private correspond- 
ence between Russia and England began in January, 
and may be considered as terminated in April, 1853. 
Prince Menschikoff received orders in February to 
prepare for his immediate departure to Constantino- 
ple. And towards the close of May, having failed in 
his mission, he withdrew fi'om Constantinople. Wliat 
difference was there between the Russian represen- 
tation of his mission and its reality ? Prince Men- 
schikoif 's mission ran parallel in point of time with 
the confidential communications to which we have 
already referred ; and the correspondence in relation 
to it establishes two points : 1. That in the settle- 
ment of the Holy Places, while the Emperor de- 
clared that he would not require the withdrawal of 
any advantages gained by the French court, he dis- 
tinctly announced that his leading object would be 
to obtain an equwalent for any such concessions — and 
2, that in expectation of difficulty, the Czar did 
openly commence military preparations to meet any 
such emergency. 

"In speaking to me yesterday," says Sir Hamilton 
Seymour, on February 10, 1853, "of Prince Men- 
schikoff 's instructions, which were again represented 
to be moderate in their character, the Chancellor ob- 
5 



60 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

served that there was necessarily some vagueness in 
his orders; as on one side it was hardly ascertained to 
what extent the rights secured last year to the Greeks 
had been infringed ; and on the other, there could 
be no question of attempting to regain from the 
Latins any of the privileges which they might sub- 
sequently have acquired at Jerusalemx. The object 
to he sought for was^ therefore, cm equivalent for any 
jprimlege lost lyy the GreelisP Blue Books, Part i, Y9. 
On March 24, 1853, Lord Cowley, the British am- 
bassador at Paris, says, " assurances are given that 
there is no intention on the part of Russia to disturb 
any arrangement made between France and the 
Porte in regard to the sacred buildings ; hut it is laid 
down that if concessions ha/oe heen made to the Latins, 
a/n equivalent will he required for the Greehs. The 
whole tenor of the corresi3ondence shows further that 
the Emperor of Russia has no hostile feeling towards 
Turkey, and is anxious for the maintenance of the 
integrity of the Ottoman Empire." Blue Book, 
Part I, 96. And again, on March 31, the same am- 
bassador, repeating the substance of the French dis- 
patches from Constantinople, says : " He said that 
after the positive assurances given by the Russian 
Government, that there was no intention on their 
part to procure any retractation of the concessions 
made to France, the French Government were per- 
fectly satisfied. Tlie latter, moreover, had no pre- 
tension to interfere with any concessions which the 
Porte might think fit to accord, in compensation to 
the Greeks, unless the independence of Turkey 
should thereby be threatened, and even then it would 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 51 

be a case for tlie consideration of the great powers 
of Europe collectively, and not of France individu- 
ally." Idem, p. 100, 101. 

That England was aware of the military prepara- 
tion of Russia, is evident in nearly all of the dis- 
patches from St. Petersburg. On April Yth, 1853, 
Sir Hamilton Seymour writes to the Earl of Claren- 
don, '' I observed that with the j)eaceful prospects 
which were now opening on us, I flattered myself 
His Excellency could now give me the assurance 
that military preparations were laid aside ; at all 
events that there was some commencement of dis- 
continuance of military preparation. Count Nessel- 
rode replied that he did not feel at liberty to give me 
that assurance^ but that he did not hesitate to express 
to me his own conviction, that the negotiation at 
Constantinople would be brought, and speedily, to a 
happy conclusion." Idem, 142. 

And Lord Clarendon himself, in his dispatch of 
May 31, to Sir Hamilton Seymour, says : " The nego- 
tiations at Constantinople have been supported by 
great demonstrations of force, and every preparation 
for war has been made in the Southern provinces of 
Russia. Great Britain has long heen a guiet specta- 
tor of those armaments ; but now that the relations 
between Russia and Turkey are broken off, it be- 
comes our duty to ascertain, &c., &c." Idem, 203. 

During the whole of the discussions, therefore, it 
is clear that Prince Menschikoff's mission, "support- 
ed by great demonstrations of force," had for its open 
and avowed object, the attainment of '^ an eguiva- 
lent " for the Greeks. What must have been included 



52 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

in such an object? As long as the so-called 
integrity of tlie Ottoman Empire is presei»ved, the 
difficulty always must be to preserve the statics quo 
of the contrarient influences of the European courts 
in Constantinople. Upon the proper and natural 
balance of these influences, indeed dej^ends that in- 
tegrity ; and this was the principle of the treaty of 
1841 — a treaty, it must be recollected, signed without 
the knowledge, and against the interest of France, 
and to which she gave, finally, a forced and sullen 
acquiescence. From the treaty of 1841 to 1852, the 
action of natural causes has modified the balance of 
these influences. Tlie very elements of influence 
recognised in that treaty, were gradually developing 
a modification of the relation of its parties in regard 
to Turkey. Between the Christian j)opulation of 
Turkey and Russia, the bonds of religious and politi- 
cal sympathy grew stronger and closer every day, 
and it could not be otherwise than that, in the natural 
course of events, Russian influence in Turkey must 
be predominant. This was only the necessary result 
of time, and the treaty of 1841. The growth, there- 
fore, of this Russian influence must have been antici- 
pated, and the memorandum of 1844 proves, was 
anticipated by England herself; and this State paper 
looks forward evidently to the action of Russia modi- 
fied, restrained by, and concerted with England, as the 
regulator of the fate of the Ottoman Emj^ire. It is 
admitted, as we have shewn by Lord John Russell's 
own language, that the status quo of European influ- 
ence, as represented in Constantinople by the respec- 
tive privileges of the Greeks and Latins, was violated 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION". 53 

by France, and that the French Minister had threat- 
ened the Snltan with the French fleet to carry his 
point. Here, then, was a distinct violation of the 
established balance against Knssia. A long contro- 
versy ensned, and finally the Czar declared that he 
wonld leave the advantages gained by the French 
nntonched, provided he received in turn from the 
Porte a guaranteed equivalent. E^ow the only dif- 
ference, in fact, between Count ISTesselrode's state- 
ment to Sir Hamilton Seymour, and Prince Menschi- 
koff 's demands upon the Sultan, was the guarantee of 
the equivalent. Count I*Tesselrode always said that 
an equivalent was his ultimatum. Prince Menschi- 
koff required the equivalent to be guaranteed by a 
treaty : For Lord Stratford de Redcliffe in his dis- 
patch of May 19, 1853, says, explicitly, "of the 
Porte's intended note, it is but justice to say, that it 
declared a readiness to concede every ^oint demanded 
hy Russia^ with the single exception of that form of 
guccrcmtee j I mean an engagement loith the force of 
treaty^ lohich the Porte conceives to le inconsistent 
with its indej^endence and sovereignty^ and which 
opinion is more or less entertained by every one who 
may be supposed to have acquired a competent 
knowledge of the subject. Blue Books, Part i, 205. 
Taking this, then, as granted, we confess we cannot 
see, whatever may have been the variation in the 
style of language used by Count ISTesselrode to Sir 
Hamilton Seymour, and that held by Prince Men- 
schikoff to the Sultan, any real and substantial differ- 
ence between the object of the mission, as declared 
at St. Petersburg, and the object as demanded at 
*5 



54 AN AlklEEICAN VIEW 

Constantinople. The demand of an equivalent im- 
plied the guarantee of the equivalent, particularly 
under the circumstances. For, "it is but justice," 
says Lord Stratford, in his dispatch of May 22, 1853, 
after the departure of Prince Menschikoff from 
Constantinople, ''to admit that Russia had some- 
thing to complain of, in the affair of the holy places ; 
nor can it be denied that much remains to be done 
for the welfare and security of the Christian popula- 
tion in Turkey. But it is equally true, that a fair 
measure of reparation has been given to the Russian 
ambassador," &c. E'ow, on this latter point, Russia 
was as much authorized to judge for herself, as 
England was to judge for her ; and as to the great 
and leading objection afterwards made in the same 
dispatch, and in the English State papers generally, 
" as to the dangerous and inadmissible character of 
the powers which His Majesty's ambassador has 
sought to obtain at the Sultan's expense," we con- 
fess we realise the full force of Count ISTesselrode's 
brief but practical reply to Sir Hamilton Seymour. 
"I admitted," says Sir Hamilton Seymour, in the 
dispatch of May 27th, 1853, ''having some consid- 
erable time since learned from His Excellency that 
it was considered essential that the two firmans 
should be re-inforced by, or, if he pleased, embodied 
in a convention; but, that there was entirely new 
matter in the 'Projet de Traite' brought forward 
by Prince Menschikoff ; that there was now cjuestion 
of granting to the Emperor a right of protection over 
10,000,000 of Greeks, which would render him more 
powerful in Turkev than the Sultan himself, ivMch 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION". 65 

icoiild make them all lookup to a foreign sovereign^ 
and not to their own master. 

Have they looked^ Count Nesselrode replied, for 
the last hundred years in any other direction V^ 

It is unnecessary to follow the course of nego- 
tiations from the departure of Prince MenscliikofF 
to tlie declaration of war, because the effort of 
diplomacy was then simply to relieve the parties 
in controversy from the consequences of the posi- 
tion in which they stood to each other at that 
point. Tliese efforts having failed, the parties 
stood, therefore, at their close, just where they were 
at its commencement. An impartial statement 
of the whole controversy would appear to be this : 
The difficulty has arisen, not from any regard to 
Turkey, nor from any real interest in her Christian 
subjects, but from the jealousy of the great powers 
of their respective influence, and seems to be the 
natural and unavoidable result of the treaty of 1841, 
and the condition of Turkey. By that treaty, Turkey 
was deprived of all real independence, her dissolu- 
tion rendered certain, and Constantinople made the 
battle-field of foreign and contending interests. In 
1852, France having made certain demands by 
which Russia considered the equilibrium of influ- 
ences disturbed, the Czar finally required from 
Turkey a settlement of the local question in disj)ute, 
guaranteed by such a diplomatic transaction, whether 
treaty or note, as would protect the Greek Church 
for the futm-e ; but which in so doing, necessarily 
owing to the relations between Russia and the mil- 



56 



AN AMEKICAN VIEW 



lions of Greek subjects of Turkey, would give ex- 
tended force and increased energy to Russian influ- 
ence in the Ottoman Empire. Turkey, sustained 
directly by the counsel and arms of England and 
France, refused to enter into any such diplomatic 
arrangement. Upon this refusal, Russia suspended 
all diplomatic relations with Turkey, and occupied 
the Danubian principalities. The allies of Turkey 
entered the Bay of Besika with their fleets, and Turkey 
declared war. The points which, we think, demon- 
strated by the corresj)ondence, are : 1. That France, 
in the first place, disturbed the status quo. 2. That 
Russia claimed what she considered an equivalent, 
and England and France sustained the Turkish re- 
fusal, on the ground that what was claimed, gave an 
influence to Russia so large, as to disturb the balance 
of European power in Turkey. 3. And that it fol- 
lows, from these facts, that Russia could not yield her 
claim, without deferring, to the joint and superior in- 
fluence of France and England ; and that thus any 
termination of the difficulty w^ould be a diminution 
of influence on one side or the other, and equally a 
disturbance of the balance which all the powers pro- 
fessed themselves anxious to preserve. Now, what- 
ever we may think of the value of the controversy 
between Russia and the rest of Europe, it is clear 
that they are all fighting their own battles; that 
Turkey is only what she has always been — a prize 
over which these powers are contending — and not an 
equal ally, whose interests they are protecting ; and 
that, be the resiilt of this war what it may, it must 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 57 

end only in a change of masters — in the ntter dissohi- 
tion, or very serions diminution of the " integrity of 
the Ottoman Empire." For it has been the fortune 
of Turkey, in all her alliances, to illustrate the warn- 
ing of Prince Metternich to Mons. de Saint- Aulaire, 
" Prenez-y-garde cependant ; rien n'est plus utile que 
I'alliance de I'homme avec le cheval, mais il faut 
I'etre I'homme et non le cheval." 

Considered simply in its effects upon Turkey, this 
question can have no interest for the American peo- 
ple. But there are some points of view, in which it 
does assume proportions of a larger consequence : 

1. If the war just commenced in Europe, should 
be prolonged, or widened into a general war, no 
result can compensate its disastrous action. If 
Austria and Prussia fail, finally, in devising some 
ground for diplomatic reconciliation, the war must 
become a tremendous struggle for power between 
Russia and England — France, in all probability, 
reaping the resulting benefits. For, however the 
other States of Europe may range themselves, these 
two Empires stand foremost in the contest. We con- 
sider them in the fullness of their strength, as both 
absolutely necessary to the safety and the future of 
Europe. We think there is, however, this difference 
between them : England has already touched that 
point beyond which any increase of her power is 
dangerous to the world, while Russia has not yet de- 
veloped the matured proportions of that influence 
which she can fairly use for the world's benefit. Tlie 
rest of Europe is in a transition state ; its principles 



58 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

unsettled ; its populations ripe for revolution ; and 
its territorial limits marked for change. In that 
change, which is surely coming, Russia and England 
alone can exercise the influence of established 
power, and consistent principles. Widely different 
as are their respective forms of government, they 
are yet both the natural creation of their respective 
situations ; and their joint action, in a spirit of justice, 
would be powerful to shape and control the future 
developement of Europe. We would not have the 
power of England positively diminished an iota • 
for she has played a great and noble part in the 
world's history. She has been the foster-mother of 
commerce, and the founder of arts : nursed at her 
bosom, great Empires have grown into the perfected 
manhood of national life; and in her living language 
were uttered the first broken sentences of constitu- 
tional liberty. But England has presumed too far 
in her pride of j)lace. Of late, especially, she has 
interfered rashly, inconsequentially and wrongfully, 
in every quarter of the globe. Tlie centre of the 
world's commerce ; secure in her Island position ; 
fortified almost impregnably in Asia, Africa, and 
America ; armed with a naval power, unequalled in 
history, she has subjected the policy of the world to 
the test of her trading necessities, and has converted 
the business card of every itinerant bagman, who 
seeks orders for the hardware of Sheffield, or the 
dry goods of Manchester, into a proclamation of 
British possession. Tlie natural growth, therefore, 
of any counter-balancing European power, is a clear 



OF THE EASTEEN QUESTION. 59 

gain to the world at large ; especially where such a 
developement neither springs from, nor necessitates 
a violent invasion of England's present strength. — 
In this light, the discomfiture of Russia, by the alli- 
ance of France and England, will be disastrous to 
Europe, and dangerous to the world — for it increases 
the power, and stimulates the ambitious activity of 
the two most restless kingdoms of Europe — ^king- 
doms, whose natural jealousy has hitherto served as 
a mutual check. Any such result must give a j)re- 
ponderant continental influence to France ; and 
should the yearning of France for the waters of the 
Rhine, and the passion of the revolutionary liberals 
undertake the re-construction of Europe, as every 
thing indicates they will do, England must either 
renew the broken covenant with Russia, or sub- 
mit to some re-division of Europe, in the interest 
of Napoleon. But passing by all such speculations, 
the alliance of England and France for joint action, 
according to Lord Clarendon, in hoth hemisjyheres^ 
is a baleful phenomenon in politics. It bodes no 
good anywhere ; but the Tripartite Convention as to 
Cuba, illustrates fvdly its consequences in this country. 
2. It is clear, that the allied powers have gone to 
war, not in the maintenance of rights, or the defense 
of plain and direct interests, but for the preservation 
of their influence in the East. A glance at any map 
which marks the proportion between the territory of 
Turkey belonging to the Turks, and that occupied by 
her Christian populations ; the natural sympathy of 
race and religion, and the history of the last century, 
prove, beyond ca^dl, that the influence of Russia in 



60 AN ameeica:^ view 

Turkey has grown largely, systematically and na- 
turally ; that it is the legitimate developement of 
elements, distributed there by the God of nations, 
himself ; and that any check upon it is the result of 
an artificial political system, just, only so far as it 
works with the natural principles of national pro- 
gress, and not against them. Kow, this Russian in- 
fluence England and France have combined to neu- 
tralize, and they rest their right of interference upon 
their relations to each other, and their guarantee of 
Turkish existence in 1841. Now, this is precisely 
the relation of England, France, and the United 
States, to Cuba. The natural developement of this 
country's influence upon Cuba must grow stronger 
and larger ; the Tripartite Convention rested upon 
the claim of equal interest, on the part of the Euro- 
pean powers, and would, if adopted, have placed the 
existence of Cuba, in its present condition, under 
the same sort of treaty guarantee ; and thus the very 
same principle which has carried the allied fleets 
into the w^aters of the Baltic, would have heralded 
their gracious presence in the Mexican gulf. While, 
then, the relative interests of the contending j)owers 
are, to the American people, of no immediate con- 
cern, they may very naturally feel a sympathy with 
any power which threatens the destruction of an 
alliance which has professed principles of direct in- 
terference with their own interests. More than this, 
in the present condition of the world, there are cer- 
tain duties which such a crisis imposes upon this 
Government. 



OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 61 

1. If this war continues, Russia, England and 
France, have all colonial possessions on this continent. 
Russia's possessions, on the Pacific, are becoming 
every day more important ; and the relations of the 
European powers in the "West Indies, with the Uni- 
ted States, are becoming every day more threaten- 
ing. Standing perfectly apart from the European 
quarrel, has not the United States the perfect right 
to declare that hostilities can, under no possible cir- 
cumstance, be allowed to extend to this continent ; 
that there shall be no change of possession, among 
the colonial provinces of any of the contending 
powers ? If the papers are correct, the Government 
has already been notified of the presence of British 
vessels of war near the Pacific possessions of Rus- 
sia ; and if the war between these powers be once 
allowed to extend to these shores, it will not be long 
before the United States finds her interests compro- 
mised. 

If, as the Times of 24th May significantly says, 
" From Archangel, in the north, to Erzeroum — from 
the confines of Prussia to the north-ivestern territoTies 
of America — there rages, or is about to rage, a 
conflict, gradually drawing within its exterminating 
vortex the leading nations of the world "^ — has not 
this Government a right to insist upon such a pre- 
cautionary policy on this continent, at least, as will 
preserve the possibility of her neutrality ? I^ow, 
situated as this country is, towards the West Indies 
and the Pacific coast, we ought distinctly and decid- 
edly to make it known, that European interests can- 
not influence the political adjustments of this quarter 
6 



62 AN AlklEEICAN ^'lEW 

of the globe ; that no change can take place in the 
relations of the colonial possessions of Europe here, 
except in subordination to the interest of the " lead- 
ing powers " of the western world. And would it 
not be wiser to make such a declaration now^, w^hen 
it would apply with equal justice to all — than after- 
wards, when, if this war shall become universal, such 
a declaration may work, indirectly, a violation of 
our neutrality ? 

2. A perfectly honest neutrality, is possible only 
to a strong nation. All history proves, that a weak 
nation is never allowed to maintain a neutral posi- 
tion, if the interests of greater kingdoms require its 
services. And this is more specially true of a mari- 
time powder ; and in the ]3resent condition of interna- 
tional relations, a great maritime nation, armed with 
its due and proj)ortionate naval strength, would be, 
if faithfully neutral, the great mediating power of 
the world. But it must be al)lc to speak with the 
authority of might, as well as right. If the fleet of 
Sir Charles Kapier were now in the Gulf, wdiat would 
be \\\Q force of our protest. 

3. In the present condition of things, and in the 
complications which the future seems to threaten — 
if there is one thing more necessary to this Govern- 
ment than another, it is full, accurate, imj)artial in- 
formation of the strength, feelings, interests and in- 
tentions of the leading European powders. !Now, 
there are two kinds of diplomatic service — the one 
consists in a direct interference with, and interest in, 
the political schemes of other nations, in an effort to 
modify or control the action of other powers, for 



OF THE EASTEEN QUESTION. 63 

our own purposes. And wliere nations are closely 
associated, as in Europe, in material and political 
interests, this service is one of great delicacy, dig- 
nity, and difficulty. Situated as the United States 
are, tlieir interests open scarce any field for a like 
activity. But we stand, somewhat like the old neu- 
tral and trading republic of Venice ; and, like her, 
we might wisely cultivate the other kind of diplo- 
matic service. Tlieir ambassadors were everywhere 
thoroughly trained for observation ; they passed 
gradually through the circle of national relations, 
and impartial spectators of the whole field of poli- 
tics ; they supplied the Government with such full 
and minute information, that it could, at any moment, 
comprehend the whole scope of European politics, 
and give each separate event its true significance. — 
To do this, however, would require a thorough re- 
organization of our whole diplomatic system, on a 
higher basis, and upon a vastly more liberal scale, 
than is tolerated at present. Perhaps this, in the 
temper of the times, is impossible ; but it is certain, 
that questions of vast importance are casting por- 
tentous shadows as they come. If the struggle in 
Europe assumes the proportions of univei*sal war, 
this country will have a noble, but difficult, task 
before it. It may not be able to stand between the 
contending parties as arbiter ; but it can, at least, 
hold above the hot strife those principles of interna- 
tional right, which would be otherwise trampled out 
in the struggle, and stand in wise neutrality apart 
from the bloody follies of older nations. We can 
preserve, to this continent at least, the blessings and 



64 AN AMERICAN VIEW 

benefits of a well-giiarded peace. But to do this, 
requires knowledge, strength and temper ; and if the 
United States is to play a proper part in the troubled 
times at hand, they will need three things : a tho- 
roughly organized diplomatic system to tell them the 
truth — a navy commensurate with their rank, to sup- 
port their decisions — -and an honest, determined neu- 
trality, as the corner-stone of their policy. 



FINIS. 



EREATA. 

Page 1, line 18, for "Sobresky" read -'Sobiesky.'^' 

" 26, " 9, for " injudiciously " read '^injuriously.'' 
" 27, " 8, for "united " read " mrtYed." 



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